The Umami Boom

Umami is nowadays attracting the attention of the chefs and the media all over the world, resulting in numerous articles on umami in major newspapers and magazines worldwide. This is partly because of the boom in Japanese food. The more popular Japanese food becomes, the more curious people become about what is behind the boom. Eventually they come to realize that umami plays a crucial role in popularity of Japanese food. In addition to well-balance and nutritious advantage of the Japanese food, umami, as its essential part, adds a new fresh value to it.

On the other hand, we should not ignore the cutting-edge research that has been carried out in various fields since 1970s. Below you will find about umami in Japanese food and the science of umami.

1.Japanese food and umami

Few people will deny that Japanese food is getting popular around the world. In major cities, such as New York, London, Paris and Shanghai, many people enjoy various Japanese dishes as well as sushi.

Actually, in the United States, Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) reported that the number of Japanese restaurants increased to 14,129 in 2010, up from 3,051 in 1992, and the export of sake to the U.S. is augmented to US$26,291,000 in 2006 from US$6,251,000 in 1996(*1,2). These reports indicate the popularity of Japanese foods and cuisine has increased rapidly and steadily. With this trend, more non-Japanese chefs are becoming enthusiasts for Japanese foods and are creating their original recipes with umami taste as a key of Japanese cuisine.

It is clear that the healthy image of Japanese food is a key to this trend. As Dr. Kurihara, president of the Umami Information Center suggests that the main impetus for the Japanese food boom was triggered by the Senator George McGovern's report. In the 70s, US Senator George McGovern conducted a seven-year research project collaborating with world famous nutrition, health and medical specialists. It was summarized in the report, "Dietary Goals For The United States" which was prepared by the staff of the selected committee on nutrition and human needs of the US Senate, February 1977 (*3)

He proposed six goals suggesting changes in food selection and preparation such as:
・ Increase consumption of fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
・ Decrease consumption of meat and increase consumption of poultry and fish.
・ Decrease consumption of foods high in fat and partially substitute poly-unsaturated fat for saturated fat.
Since these suggested guidelines just happened to be close to the Japanese traditional diet, Japanese food suddenly drew worldwide attention.

The information results in more attention to the Japanese foods, and what's more, raises the popularity of umami as a characteristic traits of Japanese foods, and makes an awareness of the dashi as Japanese simple umami soup stock. It is well-known that umami and dashi bring satisfaction in low fat diet without sacrificing the taste. We have to wait for further researches to prove the health benefits of umami or dashi. In the meantime, many chefs are applying umami or dashi to their dish in creating their low fat recipes.

2. Scientists' passion to identify umami

The other four basic tastes, sweet, sour, bitter and salty, were found and recognized as basic tastes very early in history, on the other hand, it took so long for umami to be identified as a basic taste. Though umami is found in garum which was excavated in Ancient Roman historic site, it had been neither identified nor named for long. Compared to discovery of salt 5000 years ago, umami has carried the name only since 1908.

Even after the discovery by Dr. Kikuknae Ikeda in 1908, it took some time that umami was recognized internationally compared to other four tastes, though it is commonly present in many foods, including tomatoes, mushrooms, cheeses, cured hams and anchovies. It is mainly because of its subtle properties, but in addition to that, the fact that these discoveries were all made by Japanese scientists, Dr. Kikunae Ikeda, Mr. Shintaro Kodama and Dr. Akira Kuninaka, may have contributed to its slow recognition. Initially, foreign scientists considered that only Japanese could detect umami. The idea that umami is a basic taste was not commonly shared at the beginning.

In 1979, Japanese scientists published a paper in English entitled "The Umami Taste" at Joint US -Japan Science Conference. For too long, researchers had focused only on four tastes and, consequently, they studied only four; even though the matrix outlined by the German psychologist Hans Hening in 1916 already recognized that four tastes were insufficient. Finally, there was an explanation that accounted for some of the questions raised in taste physiology.

After 1982, many scientists of Japan, America and Europe joined forces to research on umami. Psychophysical and electrophysiological studies showed that umami is independent of the traditional four tastes. Furthermore, a specific receptor for glutamate representing umami substances was identified. Now there is no doubt that umami is the fifth basic taste.
Please check umami related academic papers at http://www.umamiinfo.com/academic-papers/

3. Umami definitions in major English dictionaries

The Japanese word umami has become an international term. Following texts are umami definitions appeared in major English dictionaries for your reference.

Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Online)
http://dictionary.cambridge.org
"a strong savoury taste that people recognize in foods such as cheese or mushrooms"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (Online)
www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/umami
"having a strong pleasant taste that is not sweet, sour, salty or bitter, especially like the taste found in meat, strong cheeses, tomatoes etc."

Merriam-Webster Dictionary (Online)
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/umami
"a taste sensation that is meaty or savory and is produced by several amino acids and nucleotides (as glutamate and aspartate)"

New Oxford Dictionary of English (Second Edition)
"Umami/u:ma:mi/noun (mass noun) a category of taste in food (besides sweet, sour, salt, and bitter), corresponding to the flavour of glutamates, especially monosodium glutamate. ORIGIN Japanese, literally 'deliciousness'"

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Fourth Edition)
"A taste that is characteristic of monosodium glutamate and associated with meats and other high-protein foods. It is sometimes considered to be a fifth basic taste along with sweetm, sour, salty, and bitter."


*1 JETRO United States: http://www.jetro.org/trends/japanese_restaurants_2010.pdf
*2 Japan Ministry of Finance Trade Summary: http://www.jetro.org/content/514
*3 http://zerodisease.com/archive/Dietary_Goals_For_The_United_States.pdf